Who Decides Jersey Number In Cricket: Know Indian Cricketers Lucky Digit

Hyderabad: Cricketers are oft known by their jersey numbers. It is intriguing to know what decides their choosing the number for the jerseys. Is it superstition, or their affinity towards a number or perhaps some other reason?

It needs to be noted that the Board of Control for Cricket in India and International Cricket Council has no role in assigning the jersey number. Cricketers are free to choose the number they wish to have on the t-shirts or not to have it at all.

However, no two players of a country in the playing 11 can have the same jersey number. But cricketers from other countries can wear the same jersey number. For instance, when Sachin was playing, he wore jersey number 10 and Pakistan's Shahid Afridi also wears the same number.

Let's see few members of the Indian cricket team and how did they get their numbers:

Virat Kohli

Team India captain wears jersey number 18. Kohli has been donning the same number since his under-19 days. In an interview, the India team captain said that he feels the number 18 is lucky for him as his father died on December 18, 2006. As Kohli shared a cordial relationship with his father, he said every time he wears number 18, he feels that his father is looking after him.

Sachin Tendulkar

Master Blaster Jersey number 10 can never be forgotten by any cricket fans. Sachin said that he felt the number was lucky for him and used the number throughout his career. In an interview, Sachin said that his surname too bears the number 10 (Tendulkar).

When Sachin retired from cricket, the BCCI had decided not to use the number 10 jersey for anyone, but Shardul Thakur, in his debut match was seen wearing number 10 jersey.

MS Dhoni

Dhoni wears the number 7 jersey as his birthday is on July 7. Dhoni is a football lover too and his favourite player Ronaldo also wears number 7.

Rahul Dravid

Rahul used to wear jersey number 5 in his early days, but after his marriage, he changed his t-shirt number to 19 as he thinks his wife is very lucky for him and her birth date is 19.

Rahul, once jokingly said, his jersey number 19 helps him remember the birthday of his wife.

Rohit Sharma

India's first-order batsman Rohit Sharma wears jersey number 45 as suggested by his mother. Rohit says that his lucky number is number but that was used by Parthiv Patel in the team so he chose 45 instead. The reason behind 4+5 equals nine.

Virender Sehwag

Former cricketer turned commentator Sehwag wore jersey number 44 earlier. Later on an astrologer's advice, he started wearing 46, but still, luck was not on his side. So, Sehwag stopped using any number on his jersey and wore it without any number and just his name.

Hardik Pandya

Hardik wears jersey number 228. The reason behind is that when he was playing under-16 match, he scored 228 runs against Vadodara and that was a big win. It is from the day that Hardik donned the jersey with the number 228.